


i'd give you my sunshine, give you my best

by shybear_styles



Series: i'm still trying everything to keep you looking at me [7]
Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal, i have no excuse for this other than I WANTED TO, soft boys in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:28:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28369146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shybear_styles/pseuds/shybear_styles
Summary: Charles knows that he's a bit of a sap and pretty much everything that Max does makes him go all heart eyed, as Pierre likes to say, but he can't help it; he loves his boyfriend more than anything and he'll never get tired of saying it, no matter how long they've been together for.
Relationships: Charles Leclerc/Max Verstappen
Series: i'm still trying everything to keep you looking at me [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1982944
Comments: 8
Kudos: 82





	i'd give you my sunshine, give you my best

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ledger_m](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ledger_m/gifts).



> Here we are, the last part of this series.
> 
> It has been a crazy ride and the me from July would never believe that I would be here by the time this mess of a year ended, but here we are. Thank you to everyone who read my works, left kudos and comments. You guys are awesome.
> 
> Thank to Kamila, as always. None of this would ever see the light of day without your support. This one is like, 90% a surprise, so I hope you like it!

Charles wakes from his nap to the sound of an incoming FaceTime call.

He grumbles, displeased, and snuggles back into the body behind him; Max is obviously still asleep, arm and leg thrown over Charles and face buried in his hair, deep breaths brushing against the back of the Monégasque's neck.

They had the foresight to close the blinds in the living room before making themselves comfortable on the couch to watch TV, which just made it easier for both of them to fall asleep while trying to watch some weird and confusing Netflix show.

Charles has no idea how long their nap was, and any hope of going back to sleep is ruined when one of their phones starts ringing again, someone clearly eager to talk to them. He stretches his heavy limbs and tries to reach the table where the phones are without displacing Max too much, without success. He sighs and moves his boyfriend's limbs as gently as possible, sitting up on the couch and letting out a yawn before reaching for the phones again.

The noise is coming from Max's phone, his little sister Jaye trying to FaceTime him and Charles smiles before reaching back to wake his boyfriend up.

"Wake up, _amour_." He shakes Max, but it only serves to make the Dutchman grumble and hide his face in his arms. Charles rolls his eyes fondly and accepts Jaye's third call.

The young girl is still learning English and Charles' Dutch is limited, but she greets him with enthusiasm, screaming his name as soon as his face appears on the screen and he laughs, asking how she is and telling her that Max is sleeping.

They manage to talk for a couple of minutes in a mix of English and Dutch, her talking animatedly about her baby brothers and Charles trying to keep up until he feels an arm wrap around his waist. He looks down and sees Max smiling sleepily at him, his hair matted down from where it was pressed against the throw pillow.

"Hey, Jaye!" Charles says and points the camera at his boyfriend. "Look who's finally awake."

The girl's delighted scream of Max's name makes both of them smile, Max reaching for the phone to greet his sister.

They rearrange themselves on the couch until Max can sit up, talking in rapid-fire Dutch. Charles reaches up to fix his boyfriend's hair, earning a smile before he goes back to talking to his sister and the Monégasque settles next to him, just letting the sound of their voices wash over him.

They saw Jaye and her brothers a few weeks ago, right after the New Year, and Max's relationship with his siblings never fails to warm Charles' heart. He doesn't see them as often as he would like, with their schedules during the season and his tense relationship with his father making things harder, and Charles knows how much that bothers his boyfriend, but he tries to be as present as possible in their lives, calling them frequently and squeezing in as many visits as he can manage.

Charles knows that he's a bit of a sap and pretty much everything that Max does makes him go all heart-eyed, as Pierre likes to say, but he can't help it; he loves his boyfriend more than anything and he'll never get tired of saying it, no matter how long they've been together for.

He thinks about the box hidden in the apartment and what he's planning for next week and feels his heart start to race. He has a _plan_ , and it doesn't involve them sitting on their couch having just woken up from a nap, no matter how much the sight of his boyfriend smiling gently as his sister shows him a drawing she made makes him want to get down on one knee right here.

He catches some words he knows mean goodbye and his name and snaps out of his daze, watching as Max turns the phone to face Charles so he can wave at Jaye and say goodbye and then turns it off.

“I love you quite a lot, you know?” Charles says, voice soft with all the things that he’s feeling, and Max looks a little startled before a smile breaks on his face.

“I love you too, _liefje_.” He reaches out to hold the Monégasque’s hand and Charles brings it up to place a kiss on it.

He’s going to do it. Weeks of planning, an expensive private room booked at their favorite restaurant, and Charles is going to do it here, in their living room, with his hair still mussed from their nap and Max wearing ratty and stained sweatpants. He gives a little laugh and lets go of the other man’s hand to get up from the couch.

“I’ll be right back. Don’t move!” He says sternly and walks to the laundry room, knowing that Max is staring at him like he’s lost his mind.

He stands on his tiptoes to reach the very back of the cabinet where they keep the cleaning products, possibly the only part of the entire apartment that Max wouldn’t touch unless his life depended on it. He grabs the box, takes a deep breath and goes back to the living room with it hidden behind his back.

Max is where he left him, clearly not understanding what Charles is doing but willing to humor him, as he usually does. 

“What are you up to?” He asks amusedly as Charles stops in front of him on the couch, hands shaking slightly. He’s been working on a speech for weeks now, but the only thing on his mind right now is how much he adores the man in front of him.

“My love,” The Monégasque starts and lowers his body until he’s down on one knee, gaze fixed on Max who looks completely frozen. “You are the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me and not a single day goes by where I’m not thankful that you chose to love me and allowed me to love you back. We’ve been through so much since we met as kids and it always amazes me how we found our way back to each other.” His voice trembles and he has to stop to take a breath before continuing, heart racing in his chest. “I always knew that you would be important in my life, but I never knew how much until I got to F1 with you... Having you in my life made me the happiest man on the Earth and I can only hope that I managed to make you just as happy as you made me. And if you'll let me, I will spend the rest of our lives loving you and making sure that you're always happy and safe. So I ask you, Max Emilian Verstappen, would you do me the honor of marrying me?”

He has been mostly successful at holding back his tears during his speech, but looking at Max now, his beautiful blue eyes just as wet as Charles’, face flushed and a beaming smile on his face, he can’t stop a few from escaping.

“Of course I’ll marry you, stupid." Max says with a wet laugh, launching himself from the couch to hug Charles. They both fall to the floor laughing, a few tears escaping and Charles clutches the other man to his chest, feeling his heart still racing.

Max raises his head to kiss him, but they end up mostly laughing into each other's mouths, elation making them smile stupidly.

After a while, Max moves to sit beside him, a hand on Charles' leg as the younger man sits up and looks around for the box he dropped in his hurry to catch Max.

"Here," The Monégasque picks up the box from the floor and opens it; there's a silver bracelet inside, similar to the one that Max always wears, also from Charles. This one has a more intricate pattern, but it's still simple, meant to not draw attention. "I wish I could give you a ring, but it would bring too many questions that we're probably not ready to face, so I guess this will have to do for now." He gives a rueful smile and hands the bracelet over to Max.

His boyfriend, now _fiancé, what the hell_ picks it up gently, running his fingers over the bracelet before placing it on his wrist. There's a soft smile on his face, along with a faint blush high on his cheeks and Charles reaches a hand up to touch his face, making the older man look up at him.

"This is perfect, baby." Max says and gives a little laugh. "I can't believe you proposed."

"I've been thinking about it for a long time." Charles admits and feels his own cheeks heating up. "And I had a whole thing planned, I was going to take you out to dinner at our favorite restaurant, make you dress up and everything."

"We can still go to celebrate. I promise I won't complain about getting dressed up." The Dutchman smirks and Charles laughs at him, getting up and settling himself on his lap. "But I think this is even better, _schatje_. Just us two in our home."

"Yeah, I think so too…" Charles says and leans forward to kiss his fiancé.

\----

Months later, after the checkered flag in Abu Dhabi crowns Max the winner of the race and 2022 World Champion, Charles hot on his heels in second place in both, not even the world's toughest PR team could stop Charles from jumping on his fiancé as soon as they're both out of their cars.

Max is crying beneath his helmet, body shaking with adrenaline and happiness, but he holds Charles just as tight as the Monégasque tries to speak through the lump in his throat how proud he is, how much he loves Max and how much he deserves this moment.

Later, after the podium, the interviews and all the surprised reactions to Charles' happiness for Max's win, Pierre takes a picture of them together during the end of the season party; they have their arms wrapped around each other, beaming smiles on both of their faces and Charles sets it as his phone background as soon as he sees the text once they're back in their hotel room.

"You should post that..." Max says when the younger man shows it to him, a soft smile on his face.

"Are you sure?" Charles asks nervously. They've talked about coming out to the public quite a few times, how they would do it and face the repercussions afterwards, specially after getting engaged, and Charles can't deny that he wants it, wants to stop holding himself back from being affectionate with Max in public, wants to be able to post silly pictures with him whenever he feels like and let everyone know how much he adores this man.

He knows that it wasn't just the public's reaction that kept them from doing it though; the FIA has known about them unofficially since 2019, and they’ve mostly pretended like their relationship is a minor thing that doesn’t need to be discussed, but both drivers know that coming out would mean endless interviews and meetings with lawyers and media teams. Other than that, there is the issue of Max’s father; Jos has been very vocal about his dislike of Max’s choice of partner since he found out that they were dating and it caused many arguments between them until Max decided to simply ignore his father’s opinion.

It wasn’t easy at first, and Charles would feel more guilty about causing a rift in their relationship if it weren’t for the fact that Jos is, quite possibly, the worst father in history. But both drivers moved past it and Max managed to keep his relationship with his siblings mostly intact, thanks to Jos’ wife. Which doesn’t mean that they don’t worry about the things that the older Verstappen might say to the press once their relationship becomes public.

“I am.” Max says confidently. “We’ve been talking about it for a long time and, honestly, I couldn’t care less about what people might say. We raced each other as hard as we could this year and no one will be able to say that our relationship will affect our racing after this season.” He reaches out to pull Charles against him, a smile on his face as he brings a hand up to caress the younger driver’s face. “Besides, I’m tired of pretending that we’re just friends. I wanted nothing more than to kiss you on that podium today and I want to be able to do it when you’re the one being crowned champion next year.”

“Shut up,” Charles mumbles fondly. “I think the wedding rings on our fingers would be enough of a giveaway.”

"Maybe," The Dutchman shrugs. "But that's too subtle for me."

Charles laughs, face scrunching up and he sees Max trace the lines of his face with eyes filled with fondness.

"Alright," The Ferrari driver says softly and unlocks his phone, turning his body slightly so he can stay in his fiancé's arms and show him the screen.

He opens Instagram, chooses the picture, tags Max and captions it 'my champion 💙🦁', feeling the older driver smother a laugh in his hair.

"Ready?" He asks, turning his face to look at Max.

"Always." He says, hands squeezing Charles' waist.

Charles presses 'post'.


End file.
